


spun from the clock's relentless core

by GuardianKarenTerrier



Series: adrien augreste 2020 [17]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien AUGreste 2020, Awesome Alix Kubdel, Bonding, Bracelets, Families of Choice, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Podfic Welcome, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Team Bonding, Time Travel, alix is lost but wont admit it, just know that she totally is, liberty!adrien, liberty!rose, no one invited alix shes just here, the miraculous are not the only magic in the world, timesquad!, we match
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:07:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25947043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuardianKarenTerrier/pseuds/GuardianKarenTerrier
Summary: "It does help," Adrien admits, finally letting go of the bracelet and then bracing both hands firmly against the floor, pushing back further against the side of Luka's bed.  "It's better than it was before."Someone raps on the wall outside Luka's dividing curtain.After a quick glance at Adrien that's met with a shrug, Luka calls, "Come in."He sits back with a blink when it's Alix, of all people, that ducks inside."So!  It took me forever to figure out when this was, you have no idea.  What's up timesquad, where'smybracelet."
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Luka Couffaine, Luka Couffaine & Adrien Agreste|Chat Noir & Alix Kubdel
Series: adrien augreste 2020 [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1860751
Comments: 76
Kudos: 321





	spun from the clock's relentless core

**Author's Note:**

> for adrien augrestes we match prompt. look i think i just live on the liberty now. you know, _with everyone else._
> 
> also this can be read without it without really losing anything, but it definitely takes place sometime after ['blink my eyes to reload another self once more'](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25852003) from earlier this month; luka figured out then that adrien must have had the snake miraculous before him.

"And... there." Luka finishes tying off Adrien's new beaded bracelet. The beads click against each other, green against black against red against black against green again, sliding smoothly as Luka runs his thumb over them before catching himself and releasing Adrien's wrist. "Now we match." 

Adrien doesn't move until Luka lets go of him first, but then he brings his wrist in close to his chest, cradling it against his heart. He has to crane his head to look down at his new bracelet that way, but it doesn't look like he minds. "They look a _little_ different, Luka." 

Luka traces one of the beads on his own bracelet, returned to him now that they've made Adrien one of his own. Luka's beads are green and blue and deep violet, shimmering like scales, broken only by two fang shaped beads to match the single ladybug that breaks up Adrien's. Juleka had offered them a cat bead instead, but Adrien had insisted on his ladybug. 

Luka backs off and slips quickly onto the bed, getting well out of Adrien's space. Well out from where he's too tempted to take hold of Adrien's hand again and not let go. "That's fair. I didn't mean it like that, though." 

Adrien shifts, still not releasing the hold he has on his own wrist. Shadows darken his eyes as he slides the last bead back and forth, listening as it clicks over and over again. 

Over and over and over-

Luka has to lean uncomfortably to do it, but his hand closes gently over Adrien's wrist once more. 

"Don't," Luka says, softly, before removing his hand from Adrien's bracelet. "Just... click it _once,_ and let it go." He breathes, deeply, and rests his hand over his own wrist instead. "It's meant to be a distraction, Adrien, not a new obsession." 

Adrien ducks his head again, shoulders tensing. "... yes." 

His voice is so small.

Luka never knows what to do when Adrien gets like this, because Luka never knows what's going to cause it until after it happens. Rose is comparatively easy, both because Rose's triggers are more obvious and because he's known Rose years longer. 

They're still trying to get Adrien to accept that he _has_ triggers. 

It could have been Luka's words or tone of voice or his movement or all three in combination. He doesn't _know,_ and he can't just ask Adrien, because _Adrien_ won't know. 

Luka shifts a little, shrugging his guitar into place on his back, and then shrugging it back out of place so he can swing it into his hands instead. "Hey, it's fine. I get that it takes time to get used to. I just- I just don't want it to make things _worse_ for you, Adrien." Luka lays one hand over his guitar strings, stilling them where they're starting to vibrate under the nervous tension in the air. He's not quite ready for Adrien to realise Luka that _hadn't_ been touching the strings before. 

Most everyone assumes the Miraculous are the only source of magic in the world. Luka's not sure why. 

"Right. Right, sorry." Adrien lifts his head again, blinking, and he looks a lot more focused. He tries to move his hand from his bracelet and fails. 

Frowning, he tries again. 

Luka doesn't particularly think he should touch Adrien again, not this quickly, but he can still distract. This time, he deliberately draws a chord out of his guitar, letting it linger in the air between them before it fades. 

"It does help," Adrien admits, finally letting go of the bracelet and then bracing both hands firmly against the floor, pushing back further against the side of Luka's bed. "It's better than it was before." 

Someone raps on the wall outside Luka's dividing curtain. 

After a quick glance at Adrien that's met with a shrug, Luka calls, "Come in." 

He sits back with a blink when it's Alix, of all people, that ducks inside. 

"Did you know you've got a no girls allowed sign up?" Alix asks, conversationally, even as she drops a backpack at her feet and then drops to the floor beside it with every indication that she's planning to burrow down and make herself comfortable.

"You don't count," Luka says automatically. 

The look Alix gives him is knowing, but then she switches her focus to Adrien. "So! It took me _forever_ to figure out when this was, you have no idea. What's up timesquad, where's _my_ bracelet." 

There's a stunned silence.

Even Luka's guitar is quiet.

"What?" Alix challenges, leaning forwards, her eyes sparking with delight and something else. Something that Luka would almost describe as _darker,_ if this wasn't _Alix._

Alix, who he's beginning to realise he doesn't truly know all that well. 

Alix, who's a friend of a friend of a friend at the closest and who _definitely_ shouldn't be here, now, with an apparent working knowledge of what Adrien and Luka are doing and why.

"You know identities are supposed to be a secret, right?" Adrien says, and he sounds surprisingly nervous, considering Luka already knows about Aspik and Adrien already knows about Viperion. 

"You know she gave me the Snake in one timeline?" Alix winds a hand into the strap of her backpack, hauling it into her lap with a wince. "Viperactive. Shame on both of you for not thinking of that one, frankly. I mean okay so Viperactive did _not_ go well, like, at all, time might have ended up bein' kinda my thing but actually keeping _track_ of it is _definitely not-_ like, seriously, I have no idea what day it is. What day is it?" 

Adrien's shoved himself farther back against the bed, his shoulders brushing Luka's knees, the back of his head nearly bumping Luka's guitar. His hand's found his bracelet again, and Luka really can't blame his friend for the rapid clicks he hears. 

Luka couldn't let go of his guitar if he tried. 

"That was a real question, guys, I don't know what day it is." Alix cocks her head, eyes distant and considering for a long moment before seeming to come back to the present. "Or like, what month. Season. I think I got the year right? What year is it?" 

"Alix." Adrien sounds calm. He's not, Luka can tell he's not, but he _sounds_ it. "How old are you?" 

Alix sighs. "Are we doing that again?" She sounds plaintive. "I don't know, somewhere past fifteen for sure? Definitely still under thirty." She pauses. "That sounded terrible and was probably super insensitive, sorry, it's not like... it's not linear for me. Come on, guys, we've talked about this." 

"Alix." Adrien might be starting to calm down for real. The clicking slows. "No, we haven't. We've _never_ talked about this." 

Alix stops fishing through her backpack, her head lifting swiftly like a startled hare. "Wait, really? This is the first time?" Her eyes light up. "Aw yeah, timesquad _origins."_

"You're Bunnyx," Luka realises, his heart pounding in a way he only notices now that it's slowing.

Alix salutes, withdrawing an energy bar from her pack and lazing back against the wall. She moves with the motion of the ship in a way that takes most of Luka's friends weeks to learn, even though he can't remember Alix having been here more than a handful of times before. "Got it in one, snake boy." She considers her energy bar as she unwraps it. "Snake boys. Also I really do need to know what day it is, I'm kind of on a time limit here." 

"How on _earth_ does that work?" Adrien demands. 

Luka blinks, registering that the clicking has stopped entirely as Alix draws Adrien's full attention.

Alix shrugs back, completely unconcerned, and shoves the entire energy bar in her face in lieu of answering.

"What, did your metabolism speed up, too?" Luka finds himself asking, honestly curious. 

Alix swallows and makes a face. "Everyone's did, pretty boys, keep _up._ Anyway. Where's _my_ cool timesquad hero bracelet? I don't got time for you to hold out on me, I gotta get back quick, but I definitely have a bracelet after this fight and that means I gotta be here _first."_

"How does- how do- shouldn't you have literally nothing but time?" Adrien's shifting forwards, nervousness forgotten, eyes shining as he starts to question Alix. "How does this work? Are you just... time travelling, constantly, right now?" His eyes dart down to her backpack, and Luka jerks a little himself when he recognises the style. 

Marinette's work has always been good, but it's nowhere near that level yet. 

But he can see the signature on the Wonderland themed pack from here- it's definitely Marinette's work. 

Alix shrugs. "Little bit, don't worry about it. Hasn't happened yet. Might _not_ happen." She considers this a moment. "No, okay, I got here so I guess it does? Huh. Don't worry about it. Also if I go, like, missing-" Her nose wrinkles. "Wait that probably won't happen I've gotten some _when,_ not some _where."  
_

"Are you _lost?"_ Luka asks before he can help himself. His guitar echoes him, a chord curling into the air like a question before Luka can catch hold of it.

Alix crosses her arms with a huff. "I'm not _lost,_ I know where I am. The Liberty's not subtle, Luka." Her eyes dart around as she says it, though. "I just maybe... am a little unclear on _when_ I am." 

"It's Sunday," Adrien tells her quietly. "And it's January. I think you probably have the year figured right." 

"Oh right winter's a thing." Time travel has apparently not done much for Alix's patience. She reaches over and snags one of the beads Juleka had loaned them off of the floor. "Hey, you _have_ got pink in here! Kinda surprised, that's not either of your colours." 

And black and red aren't Adrien's, but Alix doesn't seem surprised by that. 

"Give it over, Alix, it's not as fun if you make it for yourself," Adrien says, surprising Luka. "I don't think Juleka checked the colours first anyway, I'm pretty sure she just dug out a box of beads." 

Alix's bracelet is brighter than either of theirs, pink and green and black and yellow, and bears a single painted bead- the face of a clock with the hands stopped at midnight. Luka had had to track down Rose and her steady hands and enthusiasm for it.

Rose had not questioned what Alix was doing on the ship or how she'd gotten on board or even why, now that Luka's noticed it himself, Alix's hair is longer and dyed a bright and brilliant green at the ends. 

Luka kind of wishes Rose _had_ questioned it, because he knows it doesn't mean that Rose didn't notice. It means his sister is going to come back to him with a hundred questions later tonight. 

(Luka enjoys the looks of confusion when he introduces Rose as his sister and he adores the way it makes Rose light up each and every time. He figures it's close enough to true; he figures she's going to be his sister-in-law one day, and even if she's not, even if her relationship with Juleka changes before then, Rose will still always be his family). 

Alix holds up her wrist once they're done, her bracelet silent as it slides down snug against her skin. Hers doesn't have the gap Luka and Adrien had left in their own. Hers doesn't need it, because Alix doesn't need the click of the beads to reassure her. Alix seems determined enough to reassure not only herself but the both of them. "Hell yeah, timesquad!"

"You know I was never _technically_ a holder for the Snake, right?" Adrien's meeting her gesture even as he asks the question, their bracelets making a slightly different noise clicking together than Adrien's does when he clicks it alone. "It didn't actually happen." 

Alix shrugs, inviting Luka into their gesture with her eyes. Luka slithers off the bed to put his hand in with theirs, cautious of his guitar as he does. "It happened for you. That counts as happening." 

Luka has tried telling Adrien that before, but this time it finally looks like it might be sinking in. 

"Anyway," Alix adds. "Thanks guys, but I do gotta get going. But hey, now we match!" She retracts her arm and presses on her bracelet with a gleam of triumph in her grin. "See you in like five years, probably?"

And then she swings her backpack up, turns, and hops through a sudden hole in reality that snaps shut behind her, leaving a ringing silence in Luka's room as the two left behind try to make sense of what just happened. 

"... five years?" Luka says, at last. 

"She's messing with us." Adrien blinks down at the beads still scattered on the floor. A pink one rolls away from him as the ship rocks with a wave. Adrien shifts uncomfortably for a moment, not yet used to the movement of the ship. 

Alix had moved with the ship like Rose does.

Alix had moved with the reassurance of _years.  
_

"She's messing with us," Adrien repeats, uncertainty creeping into his voice. In the shadows of Adrien's overshirt, Luka sees the darker shadow he associates with Adrien slip higher, up to a reassuring position just over his heart, as Adrien's voice pitches higher. "Right?" 

"Probably," Luka answers, even as he thinks, _not about that.  
_

Five years in the future, Bunnyx will vanish in the middle of a battle, only to reappear moments later with a mischievous laugh and a brand new bracelet. 

Five weeks from now, Luka will run into Alix, draped over the railing out on the deck, listening to Juleka and Rose warm up and fingering the worn beads on a bracelet that's grown dull with time. 

But five minutes from now, Luka will still be on the floor with Adrien, pressed shoulder to shoulder, as he carefully teaches Adrien his guitar and gently redirects his focus every time it starts to stray. Five minutes from now, Adrien will still be toying with his bracelet, but in a much more absent minded way as his attention is wrapped in notes and chords instead. 

Five minutes from now Luka and Adrien will both be absorbed enough in each other's words and movement that time doesn't seem to matter at all. Alix's timely intervention doesn't exactly stop mattering, but it stops being the most important thing to worry about at the moment.

It takes time for Adrien's bracelet to fade from obsession to reassurance. 

It takes longer for Alix and then for Luka's own to follow the reverse pattern. 

(Time's not meant for them to play with, but time's gotten too much of a grasp on all three of them to ever entirely let them go).

**Author's Note:**

> titles from thoushaltnots a dream, again, bc the song made me want alix joining in on the timesquad
> 
> also i could NOT stop thinking of the 'red touch yellow, kills a fellow; red touch black, venom lack' rhyme i learned as a kid while i was editing this


End file.
